Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Well friends, it’s that time of year! Only a couple more days in November and the Christmas season is upon us! As you know I participated in a sew-a-long (SAL) for the Stargyle quilt but instructions for that came to a halt and I’m not sure whats going on there. So I have hopped on to another one that I am super excited about and happy to share with you.

It is the #uglysweaterblock SAL hosted by @kidgiddy on IG. She designed this not/so/ugly sweater block and you can find it here. I’m loving the momentum and community of this SAL. While it isn’t necessary to do Christmas sweaters (though most are) I decided that’s what I wanted to go with because I am determined to have a Christmas quilt this year!

My cousin Emily is also participating in this SAL and she decided to go with Disney sweaters. The cuteness is overwhelming and you can see them all right here. It was a slew of text messages with her that inspired this post.

I noticed in the little bits and updates I would get from her that we go about foundation paper piecing (FPP) slightly differently. While it still takes us about the same time to finish a block, I find the differences in peoples methods fascinating so I thought it would be fun to share my method here. So here is a photo shoot of how I roll:

I do each section of the block simultaneously. I go through and sew the first seam for each section before turning and pressing.

2. Here is what the first step for each section looks like after it’s been pressed. You can see that the center section (A) is actually complete so I trim that up and set it aside for now.

3. Now in this one above you can see that I actually did two steps in one on that bottom piece (B). If two steps don’t mess with the integrity of the other I will do them both to save time. You can see that finished off piece B. I pressed and trimmed that one and….

4. Along with the next step for the other sections I sewed the completed A and B sections together, pressed, and once again set aside until later.

5. Things are coming along.. The sleeves are still being worked up and those top pieces (C/D) are ready for trimming.

6. Continued sleeves and sewed together tops (CD)…

7. Now that CD are together I bring back the center piece (AB) and while continuing the sleeves I put the entire middle together (ABCD).

8. The sleeves easily have the most steps but at this point there are only two more seams to go.

9. After the final seam I press and trim the sleeves (and save those big trimmed off bits for the next block)…

10. and add them to ABCD. I take out all the papers and press.

11. I finish off the entire process with the most important step: Celebratory bowl of ice cream!

Haha, well not every time but it sure does sweeten the process! Thank you for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed reading about my process. Come back Thursday for the return of the #TBT blog posts.

Are you also participating in the #uglysweaterblock SAL? Let me know I’d love to check out your work!